This week Kevin and I are at Beantown Swing Camp outside of Boston, MA. We arrived on Thursday, taught a class on rhythms and syncopations, and then had a teacher's meeting where we were fed fresh fruit, ruhgahlas, and nuts and had beer and wine. Nice! That night we hung out with Bobby and Kate and had the BEST time exchanging stories about dancing. We completely lost track of time, and at about 3:30am (whoops) we packed it up and headed back to our dormitory.
On Friday we got up around lunch time, had a great meal and taught tracks 4 and 3. In both T4 and T3 we worked on technique and by the end of the class, people looked like lindy hoppers, instead of good wedding dancers. The highlight of Friday was in T4. There was a student who felt like what we were doing was sooooo elementary and wondered if we were every going to move on. Well, he left class after I corrected (for the 3rd time) how he was (not) leading a triple step and complained to Tony (one of the organizers of Beantown) that we were terrible teachers and that the class was awful. Tony came and told Kevin that we had some complaints and that we needed to do a better job. T4 was a great class and people really enjoyed the material, just as the people in T3 did (and I say this because a number of the students came up and gave us positive feedback). At dinner, Tony came over and apologized for saying anything, and that we were given rave reviews and that people loved our class.
Having a student leave and complain that we are the worst teachers and that the material we were doing was elementary (when they themselves couldn't do it), and then later getting rave reviews from a number of other students is very satisfying. He had the opportunity to improve his dancing and work on his technique and he wasn't ready for it.
After dinner, Kev and I taught T5a some lazy fast and it went over well. Some people were doing exactly what we were looking for, and others were close. After class, we choreographed our routine for T5b (the best of the bunch) in one of the dorm rooms (i.e. tight space) but had a blast doing it. We are doing it to Mainstem by Duke Ellington. After choreographing, Kev went to dance and I went to bed because I was exhausted and was feeling like I was going to start getting sick.
Just as my first night, I didn't get a good night's sleep last night. It has been too cold for me to stay asleep and I have been having weird dreams. Not sure what's up there. But tonight I am going to use Kev's sleeping bag, so we'll see if that makes a difference. Still battling not getting sick; hopefully my efforts will be fruitful.
After Breakfast Kev had a private and then we taught T5b and they rocked it! I am jumping the gun here, but I think that was my favorite class of the weekend.
Oh, and on a general note, Kev and I have been off the hook this weekend. We have been playing off each other seamlessly and the class (i.e. audience) was laughing and playing back. OMG, it's been awesome. We love the campers at Beantown, yes we do.
More later.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Monday, June 16, 2008
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